


Not Your Lois Lane

by JXValentine



Series: The Fantastic Fable [1]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Non-Graphic Violence, Not Beta Read, Superheroes, Work In Progress
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-07
Updated: 2013-04-07
Packaged: 2017-12-07 20:03:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/752497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JXValentine/pseuds/JXValentine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lanette puts up with a lot when she works with Bill. Including, more recently, his decision to become a clefairy-themed superhero.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Your Lois Lane

**Author's Note:**

> Not currently proofread but will be shortly. I apologize profusely for the roughness.
> 
> Also written purely for Poképrompts' Rarepair Challenge.

For the umpteenth time, Bill pulled his phone from his messenger bag and looked at the list on its face again. Bread, eggs, carrots, spool of copper wire, newspaper, blank CDs, two chocolate croissants from the most famous bakery in Cerulean City.

Bill frowned at the last one in particular and sighed. More than a month ago, Lanette had come to live with him. She had told her sister that she and Bill were working on a top-secret project, which was true — but not one that had anything to do with the storage system. Still, since then, every time she sent Bill out to pick something up (always Bill, with the explanation that it was because what if something happened that required Fable’s attention?), she sent him off to buy another sweet. It was getting to the point where at least one bakery knew who he was by name.

So much, he thought, for anonymity.

Still, despite her massive sweet tooth and penchant for bossing him around on occasion, Bill appreciated her company. He appreciated having another human being to talk to now and then, and he appreciated that she took him seriously despite… the oddness of his life as of recent.

For that reason, he trusted her every judgment and never questioned her once.

Except for that particular moment, when he stopped on the sidewalk smack in the middle of Cerulean City to dial her number in frustration. It rang twice, and then, there was a click, followed by Lanette’s soft voice.

“Did you get the chocolate croissants?”

Bill’s eyes half-closed as he responded, “Why do I get the feeling you send me out here _just_ to get you sweet croissants?”

A few seconds passed before Lanette answered, “I was wondering how long it would take you to figure that out.”

“How long it would—?!” Bill started, his eyes opening wide as pulled his phone away from his ear and shot it a glare. “Are you serious?!”

Lanette chuckled. “No, but it’s adorable that you believe I was.”

Bill sighed and pulled the phone back to his ear. “Lanette, don’t you think my time would be better spent helping you?”

“You would think so, but I actually sent you out for an ulterior purpose.”

“An ulterior purpose? What might that be?”

“Testing the GPS tracker I’ve attached to your utility belt. The longer you’re out there, the more data I can compile.”

“You attached a GPS tracker to my utility belt?”

“Yes.”

“And you didn’t think to tell me that you were testing it?!”

“Of course not. If you knew, you’d deliberately wander away from the route I had planned for you… or worse, tamper with the GPS tracker. I had to make you think you were running errands in a specific order.”

Bill relaxed. He would have been annoyed with anyone else who made him run about the city for their own reasons, but because it was Lanette — and, of course, because he couldn’t argue with her reasoning — he didn’t protest.

“Does it work, then?” he asked.

“As far as I can tell, yes, it’s passed the first test,” Lanette said. “The second test is to have you follow your own path and see if the tracker continues to read accurately.”

“That sounds easy enough. There are about three different ways to get to the bakery, so—“

“So you didn’t get the chocolate croissants,” Lanette muttered in disappointment.

Bill grinned. “Relax. I promise you I won’t come back without those croissants.”

“You’d better not. Kadabra and I have plans for you if you do.”

“Kadabra? That traitor.” Bill closed his eyes. “Speaking of which, send him to my location, please. I’ll be at the bakery within five—“

He stopped when he heard it. Sirens. Pulling his phone away from his ear again, he turned to see flashing lights. He straightened, eyes widening as he watched five police cars race down the road, passing by and disappearing in the distance within seconds. For a few moments, he lingered where he stood, his arm resting at his side as he stared down the street. In his bag, something beeped. Bill fumbled with his free hand to reach for the source of the soft noise until his hand closed around a small, plastic object that buzzed incessantly against his skin. He didn’t have to pull it out to know what it meant — to know that somewhere else in the city, Officer Jenny was using the communicator’s twin to call him.

Eventually, he pulled his phone back to his ear and realized for the first time that Lanette had been talking the whole time.

“—going on? I heard sirens over there. Is everything all right?”

When Bill spoke next, his voice was low, and his hand moved to cover the mouthpiece as he walked, head down and gaze away from anyone he passed along his path.

“Five police cars just passed by,” he said.

“Did Officer Jenny signal you?” Lanette asked.

“Yes. Just now.”

“Fine. I’ll start up SEELIE. Find someplace to change, and I’ll send you your coordinates.”

“Right.”

Pulling his phone away from his ear for the last time, he walked forward with purpose, passing by building after building until he came to a narrow alley. With a cursory glance around him, he ducked into its shadows and skirted behind a dumpster.

In the months since he became Fable, he got the change down to a science. Throw off his shirt and pants to uncover the catsuit and boots underneath. Yank his cloak and belt from his bag. Snap the utility belt around his waist; check to make sure everything he needs is still on it. Swing his cloak up and around his neck, fastening it between his collarbones. Pull his gloves and mask from a pouch on his belt and slip them on. That was the easy part.

The hard part was the transformation. Pressing his back against the brick wall of one of the buildings, he breathed steadily and closed his eyes. A warm feeling rushed across his body, pushed at his skin, sent electric pulses through his limbs. He could feel his fur push outwards, pressing against the cloth of his costume. His teeth elongated into fangs, and his ears stretched and cracked into pointed shapes. Noise exploded in his ears as he began to pick up every last noise in the bustling city around him. He doubled over, clenching his hands into fists and gritting his teeth as pain shot through his shoulder blades and the base of his spine. It took everything he had to resist doing much else but grunt as his wings wormed their way through the holes in the back of his suit and as his tail stretched and straightened just enough to fit through its own opening just below his belt. The latter curled at first and tensed into a lump behind him before winding its way around his waist and tightening. At the end of it all, he was left breathing rapidly as he tried to recover his energy.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Kadabra flash into existence and hold up a pair of gold rings. These were the first things Lanette designed for Bill and largely the reason why he was so grateful for her. Sound dampeners and communicators. Bill took them from Kadabra all too eagerly and snapped them around the base of his ears as his fox partner touched his bag and teleported it away. It took a moment of adjusting tiny dials on the dampeners before Bill could finally hear Lanette’s voice.

“Bill? Can you hear me?” she asked.

“Three-minute change. I do believe that’s a record,” Bill said.

“I’ll mark it down. Your bag arrived safely, by the way.”

“Good. Did you find out where they went?”

“The scanners say they’re in Cerulean City Town Square. A shadow appeared.”

“A shadow? Is it—?”

“One of Dee’s? You’d better believe it. It’s taken control of a wild kingler, and the police have only managed to stop its trail of destruction halfway across the city.”

“Rather dramatic.”

“We’re talking about a pokémon possessed by a shadow demon born from a primordial chaos god whose sole purpose in life is to enslave all life on earth to create a mind-controlled army that can be used against the legendary pokémon, Bill. I don’t think there’s any way to talk about Dee’s activities without being dramatic.”

Bill frowned. “Right. Keep watch.”

“Always.” Her voice softened as she added, “And Bill?”

He stopped. “Yes?”

“…I’ve asked Kadabra to make sure you don’t come back without those croissants. Add a cheese one to the list for him.”

Bill shot a glare at Kadabra. “Are you serious?!”

The fox smirked, held up his spoon, and growled.

“You traitor,” Bill muttered. Then, with another sigh, he looked up at the buildings in defeat. “Well then, let’s go.”

With that, he leapt to the roof of one of the buildings and raced off with Kadabra floating behind him.

* * *

The thing in the square might have been a kingler at one point, but it wasn’t then. Instead, it was a creature roughly the size of a pickup truck with a slick, black shell and six spidery legs that held its body far above the ground. Spikes jutted from its spherical body and spindly limbs in every direction, and each one dripped a black ooze that seeped back into its hardened armor or pooled wherever it stood. Two bulky arms held aloft a pair of massive pincers twice the size of its body, and every time anything came within reach, it lashed out its claws to scissor its target in half. Most of Cerulean City from the Nugget Bridge southward had been treated like this, with lampposts sliced neatly in half and buildings bearing deep gouges down their faces. It was a stroke of luck that no human got within its grasp, but Officer Jenny tried her best not to think about the stray pokémon the beast left in its wake.

Really, she tried not to think of anything at all as she waited impatiently behind the barricades her forces had set up. Most of Cerulean City’s police department had been summoned to that spot to line up in front of the monster, and right at that moment, they were having mixed success in keeping it at bay. Both the officers and the police pokémon — mostly growlithe — shelled out wave after wave of bullets and attacks, but bullets ricocheted off the monster’s hide while pokémon attacks were dispersed with a swipe of its claws. If anything, the attacks only served to anger the creature, distracting it by forcing it to defend itself from each wave.

Which was, in a way, exactly what Officer Jenny wanted. Keep the creature at bay for a little while longer, just until the specialists arrived. She clutched a small, pink device in her hand until her knuckles turned white beneath her gloves. Just where the hell were they, anyway?

The creature reared back. A bubbling roar ripped from its throat as it raised its claws. Between them, a twisting mass of glowing water formed and expanded until it dwarfed its body. The police force stopped, all eyes on the mass as they waited for Officer Jenny’s command. She, meanwhile, stood frozen, her face blank and her mouth tightened. It didn’t take much to put together what would happen if that attack was released, but what could she do?

Nothing. Nothing but watch as the creature threw its claws down and flung the ball at her subordinates. She clenched her teeth, waiting for the impact and the resulting tsunami.

What she got instead was nothing. The mass stopped in mid-air as a blue aura surrounded it. Then, without warning, it flew backwards, slamming into the monster and driving it backwards several yards. Its attack broke, and water cascaded down the beast’s dark form to form a river in the street. The first line of officers in front of the monster were pushed back by the oncoming water, and a few police growlithe yelped and darted to the back of the ranks. Other than that, they were safe, and Jenny, in response to this, breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, she heard a bang behind her, and she whirled around to face its source with a stern glance. On the roof of one of the police cars, a kadabra and a figure in a white cloak crouched. The public knew them as Cerulean’s heroes, Fable and Kadabra. But she knew them as “the specialists.”

Or, at that moment, the specialists who took their sweet time getting to the battlefield.

“It’s about damn time, Fable!” she snapped.

Fable and Kadabra rose to their feet. Kadabra looked beyond the ranks, watching as the dark monster growled and gradually stood on its shaking, spindly legs. Fable, meanwhile, turned his dark eyes on Officer Jenny.

“Sorry,” he said. “Kadabra’s Teleport can only take us so far.”

“Doesn’t matter. Look, do you have any idea what that is?” Jenny asked, thumbing towards the creature.

Fable looked up, his eyes narrowing. “Yes. A shadow.”

“A shadow? What do you mean, ‘a shadow’?”

“A demon sent by a chaos god to possess a pokémon,” he explained. “They usually come out at night, but it seems that Dee is getting more audacious.”

“A chaos god? You’re kidding, right?”

“Unfortunately not.”

The monster stabilized itself and roared. Its claws rose once again, this time wisps of water twisting around its arms. Jenny looked back, her eyes wide.

“Okay! I don’t care what it is! Do you know how to kill it?”

“Kadabra, keep it at bay a little while longer with Disable,” Fable instructed.

The fox nodded and winked out of existence. In the next second, he appeared above the crab demon surrounded by a blue light. The wisps of water around the creature’s arms dispersed with hisses as the monster itself convulsed in its spot.

“Defeating it,” Fable said simply. “We have to knock out the pokémon to force the demon out of its body. Only then can we contain it.”

“Defeating it!” Jenny repeated. “Fable, nothing we’ve done has made a dent in it! I’ve got thirty men shooting at it, plus forty growlithe firing at it at once, and it hasn’t even flinched!”

“Well, then you’ll have to try something new.” He reached up to work a hand under the hood of his cloak. His fingers brushed the gold ring around the base of one of his ears. “Lanette?”

In his ear, he could hear his partner’s voice float from the communicator, just loud enough for him to hear without Jenny catching it.

“Hearing you loud and clear, Bill,” Lanette replied.

“Can you see us?” he asked.

“SEELIE managed to break into the closed-circuit network around the area about twelve minutes ago. Officer Jenny is right. Her team has been attacking the creature full-force, and it hasn’t even flinched.”

“Do you know why yet?”

“Working on it.”

At that moment, the creature lashed out, swinging its claw upwards. Kadabra’s aura brightened as he extended his arm and pointed a claw directly at the monster, but he was a second too late in firing a counterattack. The creature’s own claw smashed into his body, sending him sailing into the pavement in front of it. At once, Fable ripped his hand away from his communicator and tensed.

“Kadabra!” he cried. “Hold on!”

In his ear, Lanette barked, “Bill! Don’t do anything stupid! We still don’t know—“

He completely ignored her and leapt directly at the monster.

* * *

Lanette sat back, her hands burying her face. Of course he would. Of _course_ Bill would do something stupid. That was how he operated: by throwing sensibility clean out the window in favor of reacting according to emotion.

She sighed. One of her hands worked its way back to her earpiece as the other fell onto the armrest of her chair. Her orange eyes rose, sweeping across the bank of computer monitors before her. On every single one, windows were open, most of which streamed black-and-white feeds from hacked security cameras all over the town square. In one window, she watched as her partner sailed through the air, electricity snapping across his body. For a few split seconds, he turned into a brilliant flash before lightning bolts cracked across the empty space between him and the giant crab before him. In the next few seconds, the crab’s arm sailed through the air, and Bill was sent crashing back into the pavement right next to Kadabra.

Wincing, Lanette clutched the armrest. This was why he needed her, in her opinion.

“Bill,” she said impatiently, “bullets couldn’t faze this monster. What on Earth makes you think Thunderbolt would?”

She heard Bill’s groan float across the communicator. On one of the monitors, she watched Kadabra and him rise shakily to their feet. Bill looked up, his head turning to look everywhere but the crab. At the same time, the monster lifted its claws above its head and then swung them down, intending on hammering both heroes into the ground. This time, Kadabra’s reflexes were spot-on as he grabbed his master’s cloak and teleported. The crab’s claws slammed into the pavement hard enough to send cracks lacing along its surface. On another screen depicting the space behind the monster, Kadabra and Bill reappeared, crouching low.

“I was hoping electric-attacks would still be super-effective against it,” Bill admitted. “Kadabra, distract the monster to buy us time. Lanette, I need your analysis! Hurry!”

“Right. Working on it!” she said.

Kadabra nodded and vanished. On another screen, he reappeared, this time with the back of his head in close-up for one of the security cameras. The image distorted as a flash of light burst from Kadabra’s body and cut through the air as a bolt of energy aimed directly at the crab. It struck its mark, causing the beast to flinch and look up at the fox. Then, the creature swung a claw up at Kadabra. Seconds later, the feed went dead.

On another monitor, Lanette could see Kadabra float beyond the crab’s reach. His claws twisted in the air, and the power cables from the telephone pole that the creature had cut rose on their own and wrapped around its arms. The creature’s form lit up while the wires yanked it into the air, and as soon as the beast’s writhing figure was pulled up, Lanette could see glimpses of its underbelly.

Its pale underbelly.

She straightened in her seat and pressed her earpiece again.

“Bill! The monster’s underside! Can you see it?”

“Yes!” he responded. “What about it?”

“What color is it?”

“What?!”

“This is important! What color is it?!”

“Ah… it’s-it’s white, I suppose. Like a krabby’s underside.”

Lanette grinned. “Bingo.”

“What?”

“Shadows improve their hosts in the ways they think would most benefit them,” she explained. “You know that.”

“Yes, but—“

“Bill, don’t you see? This shadow thought it was necessary to form impenetrable armor, but its underside is a different color than the armor you and the police have been hitting. Unless a shadow has finally learned how to be anything but black, that means—”

“ _Its underside is unprotected!_ ” Bill gasped. “Lanette, you’re a genius!”

Lanette blushed at the compliment. She bowed her head, closing her eyes and smiling as she covered her mouth loosely with her free hand.

“I’m glad you realize that,” she replied coyly. “Please tell me you’re not going to do anything stupid with this information.”

There was a pause. The monster tried to thrash out of the tangle of wires, but with each move it made, Kadabra tightened its bonds. Behind the beast, Bill stomped the ground. The pavement cracked under his feet, and tiny fissures opened up between him and the crab. Grass sprouted in the fissures before bursting into long, thick clumps that rose and tangled around the creature’s legs. Then, Bill took a few steps back and crouched, readying himself to run. Electricity crackled across his arms and torso, and she could just imagine the cat-like smile most likely playing across her partner’s face.

Lanette stood, her face paling as she realized what he was about to do.

“Bill. Bill, listen to me, okay? _Please don’t do anything stupid with the information I just gave you._ You don’t have to—“

He burst into a run towards the crab.

“You idiot!” Lanette screamed.

Her hands flew to her mouth as she watched Bill slide under the beast. Light flashed, and the monster reared back, finally snapping the cables. On one of the monitors, she could see her partner lying on the ground, his hands open and above him as a surge of light and electricity pumped into the monster.

Suddenly, a black burst exploded from the creature and formed a cloud above Kadabra and Bill. A kingler dropped out of the blackness. Its path to the ground slowed as a blue aura flickered around it until it rested beside Bill. At the same time, Bill stood as Kadabra walked forward to join him, and together, they lifted their eyes to the cloud. Both of them raised their hands, and one final lightning bolt burst from Bill’s palms as a beam of light shot from Kadabra’s. Both pierced the cloud, causing it to form a ring that gradually lightened in color. Then, in a matter of seconds, it contracted into a tiny, white orb before exploding in a brilliant flash of white.

When it faded, the security cameras only showed the police forces of Cerulean City shielding themselves from the light and the kingler lying on the ground. Bill and Kadabra were nowhere to be found.

* * *

Fable and Kadabra crouched on a rooftop overlooking the square. While Kadabra watched the police slowly begin to disperse, Fable’s eyes rested on the kingler, who slowly stirred as Officer Jenny made her way to it. Fable relaxed at the sight of the kingler leaning against Jenny’s touch, and with the reassurance that the pokémon would be fine, Fable reached up to activate his communicator again.

“Did you call me an idiot?” he asked.

“You were being attacked by a demonic kingler the size of a car, and your best idea is to _get underneath it_ ,” Lanette deadpanned. “Yes, I called you an idiot.”

Fable chuckled, stood, and began walking to the other side of the building. Kadabra looked up, sending his master a puzzled glance before trotting towards him.

“It worked, didn’t it?” Bill responded. “And I only walked away with a minor scratch.”

“You were hammered into the pavement.”

“Bruise, then.”

“I will be doing a thorough examination on you when you get home.”

“Rather forward today, aren’t you?”

“ _To check for broken bones, Bill_.”

“I said absolutely nothing to imply anything that wasn’t completely innocent.” He stood on the parapet of the opposite side of the roof. Looking down, he studied the street below him. “Besides, I feel fine.”

“You always feel fine,” Lanette protested. “And then you transform back to your human form and wonder why you feel like a hitmonchan used you as a punching bag. Your pokémon form can take damage and ignore injuries. That’s what it was adapted to _do_. Your human form was _not_. If any of your injuries carry over to your human form—”

“Yes, yes, I know,” Fable replied wearily. “I will feel its full effects immediately.”

“Right. So you know that it’s important that I treat your injuries in your clefairy form to minimize the amount of damage your human form will sustain.”

“Damage I would…” Fable hissed as he looked to the side and gritted his teeth. “You have a way of making me feel like broken goods, Lanette.”

“Keep treating your body the way you do, and it will be a fully appropriate way to talk about you.”

Fable sighed. “All right. I’ll let you look as soon as I get home.” Then, he began to grin. “I suppose those croissants will have to wait, then. It won’t do to go around town while you’re forcing me to stay in this form after all.”

“Nice try, but I’m coming to you and treating you where you are now. Then you can take me to the bakery.”

“What if I don’t ask Kadabra to teleport you here?”

“I have an altaria.”

Fable started. “You wouldn’t really force me to stay here and wait for you, would you?”

“Yes. Yes, I would.”

“What did I do to anger you lately? Whatever it was, I’m sincerely sorry, Lanette.”

“Well, for a start, you barely pay attention to what I have to say unless it’s directly relevant to your interests,” she told him.

As Fable gazed down at the street below, he noticed two figures in gas masks approaching one of the shops. One of them looked up and down the street cautiously as the other opened the door and sauntered inside. The first drew a poké ball and followed suit. Beside him, Fable could hear Kadabra’s low growl.

“For someone who complains that I don’t treat them like a person, sometimes I wonder what I am to you,” Lanette continued. “You know, I came to Cerulean City to help you by being your advisor, not your computer, so whenever I tell you not to do something stupid, what I mean is — and you’re not even listening anymore, are you?”

“Lanette, there’s something going on. Two suspicious individuals just entered one of the businesses near my location.”

“Please tell me you’re not going to do something stupid.”

Fable stepped off the roof and dropped to the street. He landed on his feet, knees bent and arms out. Kadabra teleported to his side, and the two stood and gazed at the shop. The blinds were down, blocking the view through the window, and even after Fable reached up to adjust the auditory filter on the gold rings attached to his ears, he couldn’t hear a sound. It was, literally, far too quiet.

“Relax. They looked like ordinary robbers. This will be easy,” he whispered.

“What will be—“ Lanette groaned. “Bill. Please tell me you’re not going to investigate that.”

“I can’t just ignore it,” Fable told her. “Kadabra and I are the city’s heroes. If someone’s in danger, we have to go help them.”

There was a long pause. Fable braced himself for an argument, but it never came. Instead, he heard Lanette’s voice — softer and quieter than usual.

“Okay. But please be careful.”

At first, Fable blinked in confusion, trying to piece together the significance of Lanette’s tone and the reason behind her message. But then, he smiled and began striding forward with Kadabra in tow.

“Of course,” he said. “I owe you a chocolate croissant, after all.”

With one hand already sparking, he opened the door and started inside.

The problem with walking into a situation before one got all of the information regarding it was the fact that being misinformed was a very real possibility. For example, in this case, there were not two figures in gas masks.

There were six.

That was possibly one of the many reasons why they took Fable down so easily.

* * *

Lanette was in a panic the moment she heard Bill struggling. She stood before SEELIE, fists resting on her desk as she listened to the sounds of Kadabra barking and men shouting. Then, a sharp cry from Bill crossed the communication line before it went dead. For the next few seconds, all Lanette could hear was static. When she could finally compose herself enough to react, Lanette reached for her earpiece, pressing it against her head as her eyes shifted to the side.

“Bill? Bill! What’s going on? Are you okay?”

No response, save for a burst of static. Lanette winced and fumbled to turn the volume down. Her eyes rose, glancing at the bank of monitors before her.

“No,” she whispered. “No, no, no, no!”

Her hand flung back to the keyboard, and her fingers rattled off keystroke after keystroke in rapid succession. On the center monitor, a command prompt appeared and flashed the lines Lanette fed it before spitting out a window containing a map. A single red blip flashed as it moved down one street after another. Lanette’s hands slipped to her sides as she straightened and realized at once what it meant.

“No,” she repeated. Then, her hand rose to her ear again. “Bill! Please! Come on… answer!”

When she heard only silence, she sighed and grimaced. Looking to the corner of the room, she stood from her seat in front of the bank and started walking calmly towards a metal cabinet.

“Idiot,” she muttered. “Running off and trying to be a hero, and look where it got you.”

She flung open the doors and ran her hand along the white cloak inside. Lanette knew that the idea in her head was just as viciously stupid as Bill’s idea to become a superhero, but on the other hand, at least she had a sensible reason for doing it.

The truth was she couldn’t lose Bill. It was absolutely out of the question. He meant too much to the region, to the world, to everyone in it. 

To her, even.

If he got himself killed now, then…

Lanette huffed and narrowed her eyes. Losing Bill was out of the question, period.

And if somebody actually had to make sure of that, so be it.

* * *

Fable groaned and slowly opened his eyes. A splitting headache ebbed from the back of his skull, and his ears flattened against his head in pain. Eventually, the ache faded just enough for him to take inventory of his situation, but each mental step he took had to be slow and small.

Still transformed. Surprising but convenient. Apparently, his transformations locked until he consciously switched. Good to know. Cloak gone. Gloves… gone. Hands cuffed behind him. Body bound to the chair via — ropes? Chains? He squirmed, and his binds rattled. Chains. Ankles free. Probably a mistake on his captors’ part, not that he was going to complain. He wrinkled his nose. Mask gone too. Not good.

The next step was to find out more about his surroundings. At this, Fable was thankful that he had been merged with a clefairy — a nocturnal, cave-dwelling pokémon. Even if the room was dark, he could see the warehouse floor as if someone had taken a black-and-white photograph of the place during the day. In the corner, against a set of crates, he could make out two guards in gas masks, both of whom held sizable guns. He squinted, trying to figure out why they stood so far away from him, when he realized that there was something behind them. Something lying in a heap.

Kadabra.

With a gasp, Fable stood abruptly, but the chair smashed against the back of his legs and threw off his balance. His feet shuffled in a frantic scramble to maintain his balance until he sat back down with a bang. In the next few seconds, he struggled against the chains that bound him to the chair, but when they refused to loosen, he growled and channeled electricity across his limbs and to the handcuffs. Instantly, his binds flashed with yellow light as the electricity slipped from his control and exploded. He couldn’t tell if he screamed, and besides an incredible heat, he couldn’t feel a thing. In the next instant, he found himself on his side, curled up and shaking. The lights of the room were on, and two pairs of strong hands picked him up and righted him. His head lolled as he blearily peered across the room to see a woman in a red business suit sauntering across the catwalk. She stopped and placed her hands on the rail.

“Oh, I wouldn’t do that again if I were you,” she drawled with an accent — one Fable couldn’t place immediately. “The rope is made of a highly conductive metal. Every time you try to attack, it will channel your energy directly back into you. You’ll kill yourself before you’ll break free, and we wouldn’t want that, would we?”

Fable gritted his teeth and glared. He didn’t say a word, not so much out of defiance as it was because he couldn’t quite find the strength to do it. Although he could feel his body rapidly repairing itself, it wasn’t fast enough. He wasn’t ready to fight. If by some miracle, he managed to break free, he knew he didn’t have the power to defend himself and drive back these people, and with Kadabra out of commission, teleporting out wasn’t part of the question either.

He was, in short, in far over his head. And he had to get to Kadabra if he had any hope of digging himself out. But how?

“Speechless?” the woman drawled. She continued along the catwalk, her frame swaying as she approached the ladder at its far end. “Allow me to supply a few words for you. ‘Who are you?’ I am known by many names, but you may call me La Donna. And these—” She motioned to the guards. “—are my men.”

She climbed down the ladder gracefully, keeping her head turned to her captive as one of her hands slipped into a pocket. Two of her guards marched to the sides of the ladder and grasped her arms as soon as she was within reach to pull her down safely, and as soon as she was on solid ground, she pulled an item out of her pocket and examined it.

Fable instantly recognized it. It was his mask.

His ears flattened against the sides of his head, and his muscles tensed. In response, La Donna smiled and walked slowly towards him.

“‘What is it you want from me?’” she continued. “Nothing. Except…” She stopped within a foot of him and examined his mask again. “Fable, was it? How clever. Naming yourself after clefable when you’re really nothing but a clefairy. Or…” She looked at him. “…Are you really that bad at naming things?”

For a split second, Fable’s expression wavered. Did she notice? Was it obvious? The last syllable of his alias. The fact that he used advanced technology. His condition as a half-pokémon. Fable thought he was careful, thought he had played up the idea that he was just a mysterious cryptid, but looking at La Donna now, he could tell she knew.

“You walked in on a business transaction of mine, and I happen to think interruptions are rather rude,” La Donna drawled.

“You were threatening a shop full of innocent people. From the looks of things, you were attempting to extort money from its shopkeeper,” Fable replied.

“I prefer calling it collecting rent,” La Donna waved her hand in the air. “But as inconvenient as your interruption was, I would be willing to overlook your manners if you consider listening to reason. In the end, we may be after goals that are far more similar than you realize. My network tells me you fight against Team Rocket. I despise them. You fight to help this city. I fight… well, I suppose you may call it crime, but I prefer to call it survival.”

Through clenched teeth, Fable growled, “What are you going to do to me?”

“What am I…?” La Donna laughed. “Nothing! Why would I do anything to you when you do so much to help me? No, Fable. What I propose is a truce. I let you go and play superhero against Team Rocket, and you stay out of my way.” She held out her hand, offering his mask to him. “Do we have a deal?”

Fable didn’t even need time to think about it. “I’m not your tool. I didn’t become a superhero to defend this city from one band of criminals so another one can take over.”

La Donna’s smile faltered, but then, it came back and grew. “You have spirit. I admire that. Too bad that was the wrong answer. Gentlemen! Dispose of his kadabra!”

Every part of Fable’s body tensed as he tried to shoot to his feet again, but he only succeeded in squirming against the chains as he swiveled his head towards Kadabra. To the side, he could see that the guards standing on either side of his pokémon were now pointing their guns directly at Kadabra’s head.

“No!” Fable screamed.

And then, the door exploded off its hinges. Fable and La Donna looked up, Fable with a sense of desperate hope, and La Donna with a vaguely amused smile playing across her face. Smoke obscured the doorway and snaked across the warehouse floor. From the cloud filling the doorway, a silhouette moved and staggered into the open as the smoke pulled away from its red-and-white body to tangle around its feet. Slowly, the spinda wobbled forward until it stood within feet of La Donna. There, it lifted its head, tilting it to the side as Spinda stared at her with its spiral eyes. Then, with a coo, the spinda threw up its arms, and a light burst from its body and sailed into the walls. Every surface the light touched began to glow blue-green as the smoke flooded the room.

La Donna merely straightened, her chin lifting as she narrowed her eyes at the door.

“Show yourself,” she demanded.

The sound of footsteps began to echo throughout the room. Fable leaned forward, straining his eyes to see into the smog until he caught sight of a second silhouette making its way into the room. He watched as the smoke pulled away from the newcomer’s form to reveal a young woman in a black cloak and short black dress. In every way, she looked like a princess, from the way she sauntered into the room to the way her hair was bound up, tied to the back of her head so that only her pale skin was exposed beneath her dark hood. The elegance she wore about her only seemed to emphasize the cold look on her face. Her orange eyes — for once devoid of glasses — settled on La Donna with a piercing glare, and her mouth tightened into a straight line, as if she considered the crime boss to be unworthy of her attention.

“Who are you?” La Donna hissed.

“I’m not here to be friendly,” the woman responded bluntly.

La Donna smiled. “Is that so? And why may I ask did you come here?”

The woman’s eyes shifted to Fable. He froze when he saw her glare. It was clear he wasn’t about to receive her forgiveness.

“You took something of mine, and I want it back,” she said to La Donna.

La Donna drew a cigarette and lighter out of her pocket and deftly lit the former. Taking a long drag of it, she stared with interest at the newcomer for a few seconds, as if she was quietly sizing up the other woman. As she pulled the cigarette away from her face, her mouth constricted into an O, and her breath shrouded her face in white smoke. Through the screen, she peered at the girl with a heavy gaze.

“And what, my dear, did I take from you?” she asked, her voice a near purr.

The woman nodded towards Fable.

“ _Him._ ”

At that, La Donna took another long drag. As she exhaled, she lowered her eyes just enough to peer at the newcomer with a glare.

“Isn’t that sweet? Our little hero has a love interest.” She motioned towards the newcomer. “Kill her.”

In response, the woman raised a hand and pointed to the ceiling. From the doorway, smoke billowed forward and twisted around her as if it was a serpent. Once it completely obscured her, the smoke rushed outwards in all directions until it filled the room with a thick miasma.

Fable sat in wonder. He recognized the altaria’s Haze in a heartbeat, and out of the corner of his eye, in Kadabra’s side of the room, he saw the flash of pink that signaled a chimecho’s Heal Pulse. The woman was moving quickly, and although Fable could only theorize how many different lectures were in his future, he couldn’t help but admire the woman’s skill, her cleverness, her bravery… everything about her.

He felt something slash across the chains and handcuffs. His limbs pulled apart, and he gratefully stretched and looked over his shoulder. The woman’s nuzleaf knelt behind him, staring up at him with stern eyes before dashing into the smoke. Taking this as a cue, Fable followed, kicking over the chair in the process.

At the same time La Donna coughed and sputtered. One of her hands waved in the direction of the spot where the newcomer had been standing while the other covered her mouth and nose.

“Don’t just stand there! Eliminate her!”

There was no response. No shots. No cries. Just pure silence. La Donna lowered her free hand and gazed around the room cautiously, struggling to see through the fog to her subordinates.

Suddenly, they came to her. Every one of them stumbled erratically, limbs waving in low, pendulous swings until they tripped and fell in a heap before her. The fog gradually lifted after that, revealing all three of La Donna’s opponents standing around her. Kadabra, fully recovered, growled low as he brandished his spoon at her. Fable, fully dressed, stood straight as electricity crackled down his arms. And finally, the woman stood beside her partner, calmly and without a single pokémon next to her.

La Donna laughed. “I see. Tell me, dear, what is your name? I need to know who put on such a fantastic show.”

“I am known by many names,” the woman recited, “but you may call me Titania.”

“Queen of the fairies?” La Donna raised her eyebrows. “How appropriate. But hear this, Your Highness. This was a fluke. The next time we do battle, I will see to it that it will be the end of your little crusade against my operation.”

“You misunderstand me,” Titania replied. “As I’ve said, I am only here because you took something from me. Now that I have him back, I couldn’t care less what you do.”

“A hero who doesn’t care what an organization like mine does? How refreshing.”

Titania narrowed her eyes. “I’m not a hero. Now, I would suggest you leave unless you would rather see another demonstration of my power.”

La Donna’s amused expression faded at once into a cold, calculating stare. A few seconds of silence elapsed between the two women before, finally, La Donna huffed and drew two spheres out of her pocket: one poké ball and one black orb. Fable gasped and dispelled the electricity crackling across his body before grabbing Titania and pulling her behind him. Kadabra teleported, positioning himself next to Titania.

“Very well, then,” La Donna drawled. “You win tonight’s battle, Titania, but I do hope you’ll reconsider your stance. I would be thrilled to have a worthy adversary of my own.”

With that, she tossed both spheres in the air. As if it was a reflex, Fable flicked his hands outward and formed a barrier of light around himself and his companions. The poké ball expanded and cracked open, but before its contents could be revealed, the black orb glowed and exploded in a flash of blinding light. For the first time, Titania gave into her fear, grabbed Fable’s arm tightly, and shut her eyes. Above her, she heard a low bellow and felt the wind of a pokémon rushing past.

Then, finally, the light she saw through her eyelids faded.

“You can open your eyes now, Lanette,” Fable said after a short pause. “It’s over.”

Cautiously, Titania opened her eyes and looked out into the room. It was true: La Donna and her henchmen were gone, leaving only an empty space behind. She glanced up to see Fable smiling at her sympathetically.

“I’ll also need my arm back,” he said.

Abruptly, Titania’s uncertain expression shifted into a stern glare, and her hands slipped to his to study the broken cuff still attached to him. She pulled back her hood and yanked a pin from her hair, sending it cascading down her shoulders as she worked on using her pin to pick the lock on his cuffs.

“Glad to see you’re okay,” she said blandly.

“Thanks for your help,” he answered quietly. “What would I do without you?”

“Get yourself killed, clearly.” She pulled the first cuff off his wrist and let it clatter to the floor as she reached for his other hand. “I hope this experience has made you realize how stupid this idea is.”

“What? Becoming a superhero?”

“Exactly!” She yanked the cuff off his other wrist and stared at him angrily. “Bill, this isn’t a kid’s comic book! Every day, you put yourself in danger! Today, you did it _twice_!”

He raised an eyebrow. “Are you worried about me?”

“I’m worried about the system!” she snapped. “What will happen to it if you die?!”

Both eyebrows raised this time, and for a second, Fable merely stared at her. Then, he pulled his hand away from hers and examined his wrists. “I’ve put in failsafes years ago to take care of that. You know that. I believe we’re both well aware that I’m mortal, so why wouldn’t I have already thought about what would happen in the event that I died?”

Titania massaged the bridge of her nose. “Bill, I… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant…”

She looked up to see him staring at her curiously as he removed his gloves and shoved them into one of the pouches at his waist. His hood was down, and his mask was in his hand, allowing her to see his full face — and, therefore, full, concerned expression. She looked away, feeling her face grow a little hot in embarrassment. Titania wished she could tell him the truth — the truth about how much she cared about him. About how much she wished she could take him by the shoulders, shake him, and ask him over and over if he had any idea how much danger he was in. About how, although she could live without him, her life would very likely feel boring and empty. About how, every single day he existed, she felt challenged, like his mere presence not only colored her world but also pushed her to be something more — something far better than what she could have become on her own.

About how she wasn’t sure if she could call how she felt about him love, but whatever it was, she felt so strongly about it she hated the idea of living without him. So she would walk right into Hell if he needed her to because otherwise, she was alone.

Instead, what came out of her was a small question in a tiny voice.

“Why do you do this?”

“What do you mean?” he responded.

“Why do you need to be a superhero?”

She heard him turn and felt his hands on her shoulders. One of them spent only a few seconds there before it moved to the side of her face to push her to look at him. She felt the fine, soft fur of his palm against her cheek as she stared into his face to see his ears down and his eyes full of an expression she couldn’t quite read.

“I’m sorry for making you worry so much,” he said. “But Lanette, you know how I feel concerning this already. If a person has the ability to do something to help, they should help. I didn’t give myself these powers intentionally, but now that I have them, I might as well use them for good. Does that make sense?”

“No,” she replied. “You can use your abilities for the greater good in so many other ways that don’t endanger you. You can protect yourself on the field. You can unlock the secrets of pokémon moves. You can even _ask_ pokémon what it’s like to be them, and you can understand what they say in response. Why was being a superhero the first thing that came to your mind?”

“It wasn’t,” Fable admitted. “I thought about those things too, but…” He looked at the floor and huffed.

“But what?”

“You’ll think it’s stupid.”

Titania lowered her eyelids. “Bill, the stupidest thing you ever told me was you figured out a way to understand pokémon by running around your cottage in costumes, and that somehow led to the most brilliant papers I have ever seen from you. I’ve given up my right to call your ideas stupid a long time ago.”

He looked into her face at that point with an uncertain smile. “Well… you see, the thing is… I wanted to protect you.”

At once, Titania froze. Her eyes widened, and her face reddened as she stared directly at her partner. “To protect me?”

“Well, not just you. The entirety of Cerulean City.” He took a deep breath. “It’s difficult to explain, but… it feels great, knowing that I have the power to keep you safe. All of you, I mean.”

“Bill…”

She embraced him before he could react. Leaning back, Fable blinked, holding his arms out as he stared at the top of Titania’s head. Still confused, he shifted his gaze to Kadabra for help, who merely grinned and turned away.

“Traitor,” Fable mumbled.

“He knows you’re an idiot,” Titania replied as she buried her face in his chest.

“I thought you said you couldn’t call me stupid!” he protested.

Titania pulled away and smiled sweetly. “I said I couldn’t call your _ideas_ stupid. There isn’t anything wrong with calling _you_ an idiot.”

He crossed his arms and looked away. “Thanks for making me feel appreciated.”

Titania took off her cloak and pulled his bag off her shoulder from where it hid beneath the folds of her garment. With a sly glance his way, she tossed it at him, hitting him in the shoulder and causing him to fumble frantically to catch it.

“You’re welcome,” she told him. “Now get changed. I need you to be human again so I can finally get those chocolate croissants.”

“What time is it?” he responded in confusion. “The bakery might be closed by now.”

“Night, and it doesn’t matter. I’ll drag you across the city if I have to in order to find a croissant.”

“I’d like to repeat myself, Lanette: whatever it is that I did to upset you, I’m sincerely sorry.”

“I forgave you for that slight hours ago. This is for making me come out here to save you.”

She took out a case from her pocket and drew from it her glasses. Slipping them on, Titania transitioned into Lanette and stood calmly with her back to her partner. She could hear his quiet grunt in the middle of his own transformation, followed by the rustling of clothing. In the quiet, she crossed her arms and lowered her eyes, resisting every temptation to look back at him and add something else — something a little kinder than that stupidly teasing remark. What she wanted was to tell him that no matter how much he worried her and how much he scared her sometimes, she always forgave him. Instantly. But instead, she stood, hoping that he would get the message just by her tone. That was always how it worked with them: messages in implications, in glances, in tones. Never outright. It was too cheesy, too insulting to say things outright.

Or it was to Lanette. To Fable, however — to stupidly sentimental _Fable_ — it was a different story.

“For what it’s worth,” Fable said, “I care deeply about you too.”

Lanette looked back to see not Fable but instead Bill, her partner, the person she practically grew up with and the person she knew before all of the clefairy weirdness that entered their lives. And on a level, she missed the way he had been back then, back before she had a concrete reason to worry about him every day.

But then again, as he held out his hand for her to take, his words echoed in her head one more time.

He wanted to be a superhero to keep everyone safe. He wanted to be a superhero to keep _her_ safe.

And although she worried constantly about his well-being, she came to realize that she did indeed feel safe with him for entirely different reasons than he thought. Reasons that weren’t at all related to whether or not she was physically protected.

She took his hand and slid her arm around his, and together, they began walking towards the destroyed door to the warehouse. Kadabra floated after them, swooping to be at their side.

“Wait,” Bill suddenly said, stopping for a brief moment. “That bakery you were sending me to doesn’t make cheese croissants, and Kadabra doesn’t eat cheese anyway. Why would he want a cheese croissant?”

“To be honest, he and I are conspiring against you. He thought it would be funny to send you all over the city in search of something that doesn’t exist, and I thought it would be amusing to see how long it would take you to figure it out,” Lanette admitted. “It’s been six hours, Kadabra. What do you think?”

Kadabra turned and barked at his master. An amused grin spread across the fox’s face.

“You traitor!” Bill shouted.

With that, he pulled away from Lanette and raced out the door, chasing after his pokémon. Lanette lingered behind, hands behind her back as she watched her companions with a soft smile.

She did feel safe with Bill. And if he needed her to protect him the way she did that night, she would do it over and over again _because_ she felt safe with him. Because, ultimately, he was Bill, not Fable, and although she could never be like the Lois Lanes in his comic books, she didn’t mind so much so long as Bill let her be his Batgirl.


End file.
